This invention relates generally to blood sedimentation measuring techniques, and more particularly to a device adapted to record any variation in time of the blood sedimentation automatically on a sheet of ligh-sensitive paper.
Heretofore, the sedimentation rate of red blood corpuscles has been measured through the Westergren method or the Landsberg method. In accordance with the Westergren method, 0.4 ml of 3.8% sodium citrate solution is prepared beforehand in an injector, and then 1.6 ml of venous blood is taken into the injector so that altogether 2.0 ml of blood-sodium citrate mixture is obtained therein.
The mixture is then replaced in a Westergren tube which is thereafter held vertically, and the rate of sedimentation of red blood corpuscles is read manually by the aid of a scale graduated thereon at times of 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours after the initiation of the measurement.
However, the above described reading operation at accurate times of 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours after the initiation of the measuring operation is found to be no easy job, particularly in a large hospital or the like wherein a great number of blood sedimentation tests are carried out for blood taken at arbitrary times.